Resolving the Weight Issue: Living By Design Instead of by Default

Our culture’s fanatic fixation on losing excess weight is a mixed blessing. While the majority of people in this country are overweight and do need to release weight, the answer does not lie in extreme methods ranging from severe diets to serious invasive surgeries. What many people are seeking is an external remedy that is not only healthful, sure and sustainable, but also fast and easy. It doesn’t exist.

Granted, it is possible to healthfully release weight by exercising discipline and will power and taking in fewer calories than we expend. Millions of people are perfectly capable of doing this and are able to attain and maintain a healthy, desired weight. Millions of others never had a challenge in the first place. So where does the problem lie with the majority of Americans who are overweight and can’t release the pounds and keep them off?

It certainly doesn’t help the situation that we are bombarded on every side with advertisements that encourage us to eat our way to fulfillment and happiness. This conditions us to overeating. But that factor doesn’t change a basic truth: One of life’s major lessons is to take responsibility for our own actions. That’s the reason we are here on Earth, to learn lessons – and the one about weight just happens to be visible to the rest of the world.

The reality is that obesity isn’t just an external, physical problem; it is a body-mind-spirit situation and must be met as such as they are all connected. Trying to alter this situation on a strictly physical level is responsible for the widespread proliferation of harsh diets, dangerous surgeries and such conditions as anorexia and bulimia.

Through my frustrating failures to release a small percentage of weight for health reasons, and keep it off, I gained some insights. I finally realized that either I was not committed at a deep level to the desire to release weight – or I was harboring subconscious thoughts or emotions that were sabotaging my efforts.

I learned that the answer lies first and foremost in dealing with our own inner life issues. Being overweight may be caused by a fear of life itself, which causes us to believe that we need this extra protection – weight – to buffer us from any past or present, real or anticipated hurts and abuses or the insecurities of life in general. It could be the fact that whenever we cried as babies someone stuffed food into our mouths, or we were underfed, so now we use food to comfort us whenever we feel insecure or have a problem. If we don’t have enough sweetness in our lives, we indulge in desserts. If we lack meaning in our lives and are not living to our fullest capability, it feels like a deep hole within us and we try to fill it with food.

Whatever the issues involved, we need to make peace with our weight challenge. According to Eckhart Tolle, author of A New Earth – what we resist persists – and any action we take from resistance will only bring us more of the same results.

I used the following technique to unlock any issues that blocked my success in the past. I wrote out the following statement, filled in the blank and repeated the process until I received answers that resonated as truth within me: I could release weight and keep it off if I … ______________. This exercise can take time, but the result is worth it.

I discovered that my primary problem was in trying to “force” my body to release weight instead of consciously “choosing” to do so and then wisely partnering with my body. Once I recognized the true situation, I immediately felt a wave of love for myself and my body, and from that clarity I chose life and health. At the same time, my body seemed to give a palpable sigh of relief that I finally got it.

As we clear any thoughts or emotions that oppose our desired intention, we are free to partner with our bodies to release weight healthfully. A natural result of doing this inner work is learning to trust in the life process and in our own ability to master our thoughts and positively affect our lives.

My experience confirms the vital importance of being clear on what we desire, and why we desire it. Using this method, we can become aware of and clear any negative beliefs or emotions we hold around the weight issue. Then we can align our thoughts so they support our intention. In this way, we can achieve our desired result and start living by conscious design—instead of by default.

My new daily affirmation: I love myself. I love my body. I choose vibrant health-wholeness. I choose life. I choose to provide my body healthy, attractive and good-tasting foods. I choose to wisely and appropriately exercise my body. In return, my body automatically transforms the foods I eat into health, energy, strength and vitality, attaining and maintaining a balanced state of health. And so it is!

[To learn how to clear invalid thoughts and emotions, go to the author’s Web site at http://www.fernstewartwelch.com/; click on How-to Lists then on Fulfill Your Potential.]
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Copyright 2008 by Fern Stewart Welch

The author’s book THE HEART KNOWS THE WAY—How to Follow Your Heart to a Conscious Connection with the Divine Spirit Within is available at Amazon.com and other online booksellers, as well as through major bookstores such as Barnes & Noble and Borders.